Organization

The Giving Tree Food Pantry, a food pantry founded in 2010.

Mission

"Do more to help those who struggle daily to feed themselves and their families."

Location

3385 North Franklin St, Christiansburg, VA, 24073 at Fieldstone United Methodist Church.

Contact Info

540-951-8134

thegivingtreefoodpantry@gmail.com

Hours of Operation

Thursdays 11am-1:30pm

Collaboration

The coordinator of the Giving Tree Food Pantry finds working with local producers very easy. Particularly because government incentives such as making grocery store donations tax deductible encourage retailers to support the pantry.

The Giving Tree does not collaborate much with other pantries. They do occasionally share donations with the Spiritual Roots food pantry, which is right down the street. For example, The Giving Tree recently received an over-abundance of green peppers donated from a local farmer, and so they gave some of the leftovers to the Spiritual Roots pantry. This is the type of collaboration our research project hopes to further facilitate through the creation of an online resource where pantry leaders can see who is in need of what and reach out to each other for support.

Food Sources & Storage

They source their food mainly through grocery store donations from Kroger and Food Lion, but also get some donations from Eats Natural Foods in Blacksburg, Virginia. Virginia Tech Farms such as Kentland Farm donate some of the produce they receive, and Feeding America provides some of the boxed and canned goods. Additionally, much of the food at the pantry is provided by individuals who donate on their own. Some of these individuals are local farmers, while others are from Virginia Tech and Radford University student groups, particularly fraternities and sororities, who organize food drives to provide donations. The Giving Tree Food Pantry “[takes] donations from anyone who offers,”  so the overall stream of donations is uneven. 

The pantry is equipped with a large refrigerator to keep meat frozen and other produce and dairy cold, allowing food to have a longer lifespan.                                                                  

Receiving Food

Regulations on how much food a family may receive are as follows: large families (more than four people) can receive more food, contingent on how much food they have to give out that week. Usually a family will receive one or two loaves of bread, one dessert, a handful of produce (about three or four pieces of produce—as many pieces of produce as people in their family—one to two pounds of meat, six to twelve eggs, and then one standard-size plastic shopping bag filled with canned goods and one filled with boxed goods like cereal, rice, etc.

Work Force

Volunteers will garden a couple dozen plots of land to provide the pantry with produce. She told us that the community is a great support that they could not do without.

Information for Gleaning Donations